Cen­tre­farm Employees

Vin Lange – CEO

Vin comes from a strong agribusi­ness and busi­ness devel­op­ment back­ground. He has suc­cess­ful­ly cre­at­ed and run small, medi­um and large busi­ness­es in Aus­tralia and Europe. Vin has a strong under­stand­ing of the eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment space with par­tic­u­lar focus in remote area devel­op­ment. With an abil­i­ty to clear­ly and quick­ly iden­ti­fy oppor­tu­ni­ties and chal­lenges, and to devel­op robust and work­able respons­es, Vin’s inno­v­a­tive approach and busi­ness acu­men under­pins Cen­tre­far­m’s success.

Tony Rene­han

Development & Operations Manager

Tony brings exper­tise in logis­tics man­age­ment, train­ing and staff devel­op­ment, and plan­ning and organ­i­sa­tion­al aspects of strate­gic meet­ings. Tony has sig­nif­i­cant expe­ri­ence work­ing with Abo­rig­i­nal organ­i­sa­tions in Cen­tral Aus­tralia, hold­ing a strong under­stand­ing of remote Abo­rig­i­nal cul­tures and prac­tices, a strong under­stand­ing of the Abo­rig­i­nal Land Rights (NT) Act 1976 and sub­stan­tial knowl­edge of good gov­er­nance struc­tures in the North­ern Territory.

Alex van Dartel

Business & Corporate Manager

Alex has experience across financial analysis, investment management, agricultural development and social service delivery. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Finance and Economics) from the University of Wollongong. Alex grew up in regional NSW and has worked in Canberra and Sydney, as well as travelling widely throughout remote Australia. Since joining Centrefarm in 2022, he has focused on developing commercially viable agricultural and horticultural projects that create long-term economic opportunities for remote and Aboriginal communities.

Brody Smith

Project Developments

Brody has worked in a range of pro­fes­sion­al and tech­ni­cal roles in Cen­tral Aus­tralia since 2013, fol­low­ing time in Arn­hem Land and Burk­i­na Faso. Brody has expe­ri­ence in envi­ron­men­tal con­sul­tan­cy, project man­age­ment and with the Cen­tral Land Coun­cil’s min­ing divi­sion. He holds a Mas­ter of Envi­ron­ment (Sus­tain­able Food Sys­tems) from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Mel­bourne and Bach­e­lor degrees in Envi­ron­men­tal Sci­ence and Pol­i­tics. Brody plays a key role in project devel­op­ment, Centrefarm’s envi­ron­men­tal poli­cies & respon­si­bil­i­ties, and man­ages Centrefarm’s Co-map­ping on Coun­try project.

https://centrefarm.com/co-mapping-on-country

Cen­tre­farm Associates

Martina Matzner

Martina Matzner was born in Munich, Germany, and has lived in the rural Darwin region of Australia for 35 years. She has extensive experience in the horticultural sector, including developing and managing a large mango enterprise outside Darwin for 25 years, employing up to 150 staff.

She has contributed significantly to the Australian mango industry in areas such as workforce development, ethical employment, best farming practices, sustainable water and land use, RD&I, technology adoption, and crop forecasting. Martina is recognised for her strong collaboration across industry, universities, government agencies, and supply chains to support sustainable agricultural development.

Over the past 25 years, she has served on several boards and advisory committees, including NT Farmers, NT Mango Industry Association, and the Mango Strategic Investment Plan.

In 2016, she was named Agrifutures NT Rural Woman of the Year. Martina holds qualifications in Agricultural Engineering, Horticulture, and governance, and now operates M&M Consulting Services.

Ker­rie Nelson

An adult edu­ca­tion and gov­er­nance spe­cial­ist, Ker­rie has worked with Abo­rig­i­nal peo­ple in the NT over 25 years and is a mem­ber of the Aus­tralian Insti­tute of Com­pa­ny Direc­tors, the Inter­na­tion­al Devel­op­ment Gate­way and the ACT Knowl­edge Man­age­ment Forum. She is cur­rent­ly work­ing with Cen­tre­farm and the direc­tors of Alekarenge Hor­ti­cul­ture Pty Ltd to share knowl­edge about statu­to­ry law and com­pa­ny gov­er­nance facil­i­tat­ing AHPL board man­age­ment of the grow­ing econ­o­my at Alekarenge.

Kim Mahood

Kim is a writer and artist who grew up in Cen­tral Aus­tralia and on Tana­mi Downs Sta­tion. She has worked close­ly with Abo­rig­i­nal peo­ple across Australia’s desert regions, main­tains strong con­nec­tions with Warlpiri peo­ple, and has exten­sive expe­ri­ence in cul­tur­al and envi­ron­men­tal map­ping projects in the Tana­mi and Great Sandy Desert. Her works have received numer­ous awards and have been pub­lished in lit­er­ary, art and cur­rent affairs jour­nals. Kim is cur­rent­ly work­ing on Cen­tre­far­m’s ​‘Co-map­ping on Coun­try’ project to cre­ate mul­ti-pur­pose maps with Tra­di­tion­al Own­ers to act as two-way engage­ment tools that facil­i­tate com­mu­ni­ca­tion, dis­cus­sion and deci­sion making.

Dr Steve Morton

Dr Steve Mor­ton is an Hon­orary Pro­fes­so­r­i­al Fel­low with Charles Dar­win Uni­ver­si­ty. He stud­ied at the Uni­ver­si­ties of Mel­bourne, Cal­i­for­nia, and Syd­ney. He joined CSIRO in Alice Springs in 1984 to work in the desert envi­ron­ment that has long been his focus. From 2000 until 2010, based in Can­ber­ra and Mel­bourne, he helped lead CSIRO as Chief of Divi­sion and Exec­u­tive Team mem­ber. Dr Mor­ton returned to Alice Springs in 2011, from where he serves on a vari­ety of advi­so­ry bod­ies in envi­ron­men­tal sci­ence and nat­ur­al resource man­age­ment. He is assist­ing Cen­tre­farm with the estab­lish­ment of the Abo­rig­i­nal Land Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment Agency.

Sam Miles

Key Strate­gist

Sam is an Agron­o­mist with more than 40 years’ expe­ri­ence in com­mu­ni­ty devel­op­ment, region­al, busi­ness and strate­gic plan­ning. His long-stand­ing involve­ment with Abo­rig­i­nal com­mu­ni­ties in the NT and exten­sive expe­ri­ence of eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment in this space has helped him devel­op strong work­ing rela­tion­ships with senior peo­ple across the region. Sam is Cen­tre­far­m’s key strate­gist, which was cre­at­ed fol­low­ing his engage­ment by the Cen­tral Land Coun­cil in 1999 – 2000 to under­take an eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment consultancy.

In addi­tion to the reg­u­lar team, Cen­tre­farm call upon the expe­ri­ence and exper­tise of a wide range of associates.

Craig San Roque

An Ana­lyt­i­cal Psy­chol­o­gist with over 25 years’ expe­ri­ence in Cen­tral Aus­tralia work­ing with Abo­rig­i­nal peo­ple to co-evolve com­mu­ni­ca­tion tools and facil­i­tate men­tal health and well­be­ing. Craig is inter­na­tion­al­ly renowned for his work and has pub­lished many arti­cles and book chap­ters in this area. He is cur­rent­ly work­ing close­ly with Cen­tre­farm and the direc­tors of Alekarenge Hor­ti­cul­ture Pty Ltd at Alekarenge to devel­op two-way (Indige­nous and non-Indige­nous) under­stand­ings on land man­age­ment and gov­er­nance to enable the suc­cess­ful estab­lish­ment and oper­a­tion of land-based economies in remote regions.